Short post for my 10 month mark!

My experience for you this week is about L*.  After Elder Magno got transferred, I kinda forgot where her house was, but last Thursday, I felt a prompting that we needed to visit her and I immediately remembered where her house was, not immediately , but as I walked, everything became clear the closer we got, until we arrived.  She is never there on weekdays because she goes to work at 6pm, until morning, and she just sleeps at home until then, but this day, her dog woke her up an hour early, right as we arrived.  She was super happy to see us, she told us that she has been diagnosed with cancer and that the doctors only gave her 2 years to live.  She's only 32 years old. We shared with her a message, then gave her a blessing.  I tried to pray really hard before, so I wouldn't just try to heal her if it was not Heavenly Father's will.  But as I was blessing her, I told her that she would be healed, that she would be able to have kids and raise them in the church like she has always wanted to.  As I was blessing her, I felt the spirit tingling through me super strong.  Please pray for her.  She is less active, but she has stronger faith than most members, she just made some mistakes earlier in her life.

Also, I saw the scariest thing that I have ever seen in my life this week.  Over the last 2 weeks, every night before I go to bed, I have seen at least 2 cockroaches on my bed, but I've just been too tired to care, so I have just swept them off and went to sleep.  A couple of days ago, we were spraying the house with poison to kill our enemies.  I lifted up my mattress and was horrified to see a nest of at least 50 to 60 cockroaches on my bed.  I have been sleeping with them for I don't even know how long haha, it's terrifying.  But it's still fun and I love it here haha!

Sometimes the Lord with let us fail to teach us lessons

Letter to Dad....

I had my interview with President and while we were talking, he shared something awesome.  I told him about the baptism and then the wedding and then the district activity and how for 3 days nothing went right haha and this is what he said.  "Sometimes the Lord with let us fail to teach us lessons."  He said that he sees it all the time as a mission president, how the Lord sometimes will put two missionaries in an area together and it just destroys the area, over time, President has learned that the Lord does this to teach the individual missionaries.  

Elder Zesiger's birthday party!

I saw an example of this at church yesterday.  For the last couple weeks we have done really good with having investigators at church and we were expecting it to double.  Saturday night, we taught this less active named Brother Fernando and he hasn't been to church in about 3 months but he has really strong faith.  His whole family also depends on him as they will not go to church without him.  But because it rained so much earlier in the week, he wasn't going to hit his delivery quota and he was going to have to work on Sunday as a result, unless it rained.  It did rain and he came to church.  Because it rained, some of our investigators were not able to come, but only the ones that are already sure and missing one Sunday won't really hurt them.  It was just interesting to see Heavenly Father sacrifice something, for something more important.

Not the best picture but he wanted to show that he made his cake!

Other than that, I had a hot shower cuz I boiled some water, I also played a lot of yu gi oh this week. Oh ya and president said something cool.  He said I will probably never serve in Palawan, so that was sad but he told me that there are no such things as once in a life time experiences.  After 20 years he was able to visit his mission again with his whole family.  They had a lot of fun, but at the end he was sad cuz he knew that they were too poor to ever return.  He has now been back over 20 times.  He said that I have the capacity to do anything in this life, and that I will.

Being a missionary is fun haha I love you!

Letter to Mom...

  We had a super rainy week, 3 of the days had floods up to our shins haha.  And then our water got shut off in our house so we have been showering and drinking with the 72 hour kit water haha which doesn't work that well.  But I did have the best shower of my mission 2 days ago.  I boiled 2 pots of water and then poured them on myself and had my first hot shower in 9 months, it was amazing!

I also got back into YU-GI-OH and I've been playing with Elder Gibson after planning and stuff haha, it's still sick!

We've had a lot of people to church for the last 3 weeks and the end of August and the first of September will have a lot of baptisms.  It's pretty cool to see cuz since me and my companion are both trying to be obedient now, there are a ton of miracles in the area every day.

Thanks for the socks!

I love you mom, I also had an interview with President but I'll say more of that to dad, but thank you for being the best mom ever!

Letter to Mom...

No the days have been good, it is pretty stressful a lot of the time now cuz I have to do everything, but its kinda fun.  I just need socks, but only black and grey and blue cuz all the crazy ones you send are bawal (against the rules) haha!  Mac and cheese is good, I still have my spaghetti sauce cuz beef is hard to get, but protein bars and cereal are amazing!  I haven't gotten the birthday one yet, but I'm going to the office on Wednesday  so hopefully its there!  (I asked him for package requests.)

Here's a story for Coby:  Our house is always full of cockroaches so last Monday, we decided to see how many we could kill.  We destroyed their hiding places and made a big pool of fire in the middle of the room (sounds safe?!!), then we got a broom and when they would run, we swept them in, we probably killed about 250 haha, but now they are all back again.:( hahahaha

Here's a story for you:  We have an investigator named Eunice and she has been reading the Book of Mormon but didn't know that it was true, she said that she would have to finish the whole book first.  I'm not that patient so I told her that we were going to pray right there, she prayed and asked if it was and then when she was done, we asked how she felt.  She said she felt like she needed to share it with all her friends.  We shared 1 Nephi 8:12 and how Lehi felt the same way.  Then we asked "so is it true?"  she said "yes"  it was kinda simple, but it was cool.

Here's a stressful story.  On Saturday morning at 6 am we woke up to help Wendel and Shane get married, we got all ready and then called Sister Joy for help, the only problem was that she thought it was on Wednesday, but she said to go to the city hall anyway and ask, so we did.  The only problem was that there were 3 city halls and it wasn't until the 3rd one that we actually found it.  When we finally got to the lawyers house, he wasn't there, he was out playing tennis. Keep in mind that Shane and Wendel's whole families were following us around , all depending on me to make it happen.  Some had come from far away.  They were like murmuring in the back too like wondering if the wedding would start.  I called the lawyer and he came and it was awesome though, it was such a good feeling when it was over, and they were all very happy:)

Letter to Dad....

 My week was really fun too, but I am realizing the stress of being the leader.  For the baptism and the wedding, it like all depends on me and everyone just looks to me for everything, it's hard!  In sacrament they announced the baptism for 4pm, but Elder Davis didn't understand so he told Shane to be there at 5pm.  It was very stressful when they were an hour late and the bishop and the ward mission leader were freaking out at me haha.  

We are seeing a lot of miracles.  We just got a referral of a family that is ready to be baptized on Aug 20, we just have to get them married, so that's sick!  The language is easy now, but what are some things you think I could do to lead better?  I've been studying leaders in the scriptures a lot too.

I got to interview someone and then baptize them yesterday that has over come a lot of sins, it was really, really awesome!

I had the thought come into my head that I needed to see him as Heavenly Father does.

Letter to Mom...
I asked about his companion....  Elder Davis is awesome haha he's pretty fun.  He read all the books that I read before my mission and he said that he wants to start a business with me haha.  I'm excited to see the house when I get home, with my trans am parked in front, then I will leave for about 5 hours and drive and listen to music, and it'll be sick.  Raizo's friends name is John Ralph, he is getting baptized on Saturday and some others too!

I've got a lot of stories again.  The one I have for you is about a guy that we are going to baptize.  Last night, we went to May and Trina, and Kyla's house to teach them, but we didn't have a third male so we couldn't cuz that's like a mission rule.  Then I was like, May where is your guy friend, he's never doing anything right?  Then all of the sudden, he walks in and cuz he was hungry and needed food, so we asked him to sit in the lesson.  We read the Book of Mormon and he was participating a lot.  His name in Lito.  While he was participating, I had the thought come into my head that I needed to see him as Heavenly Father does.  As I looked at him, with his pink hair, and thought about how he just lives in his tricycle outside in the rain, I had a vision of how the gospel could bless him.  At the end of our lesson, he asked if he could start coming regularly.  I asked him why he wanted to.  He said that what he wants is a beautiful wife and a son, but he doesn't know how.  We testified to him that the atonement could fix all of his problems and that his dream could come true.  He accepted a baptismal date for September 3rd.  As he prayed at the end of the lesson, he asked Heavenly Father for strength to overcome his challenges and thanked Him for the opportunity to be "counted among us".  It was really cool, I'm really excited for him haha.

I love you guys a ton, more than I can express in email.  The time is going too fast, so tell dad to get the trans am done.  Thanks for the advice about how to be an effective relief society president, it is working! haha

Letter to Dad...

I had one of the coolest experiences ever yesterday!  About a week ago, we oymed (talk to) this lady and found out that she was less active, so we invited her to church and then, unexpectedly she came! haha  So yesterday, we went back to teach her but she was busy so we started talking to her husband, Roberto.  He was in an accident a little while ago and cannot walk, so he just sits in his house all the time and watches tv.  He was never baptized.  We asked him if we could teach him, but he said no cuz he was busy watching tv.  So we looked around the house and saw a lot of statues of Jesus, so we talked about who Jesus was to him and we found out that he has a really strong testimony of Christ and of prayer, his doctrine was a little messed up, but his testimony was pure.  I remembered the "Challenging and Testifying Missionary" and testified that we were sent of Jesus Christ here to bring a message because He loves him and wants him in his church.  Roberto turned the tv off and said that he wanted to hear.  We taught him powerfully and the Spirit was there.  We challenged him for baptism and he accepted.  At the end of the lesson, we asked him to pray.  He began to pray, silently but powerfully, and didn't stop for about 7 minutes.  Since the spirit was so strong, I started praying that he could feel the truthfulness of our message as he prayed and as I pleaded with the Lord, this scripture popped into my head, "many are kept from the truth, only because they know not where to find it." It was cool!  As he opened his eyes from his long and fervent prayer, I asked Roberto if he was able to ask if our message was true.  He paused and didn't speak for about a minute, then he spoke.  "I have been praying to God for the longest time that he would send a prophet to show me the way, and I know that he sent you."  It was so awesome.  He is very excited for us to come back.  haha I love being a missionary.

A story he sent to Caden...

We met this guy named Nixon that lives close to Totanes and he said that we could teach him.  As we started to get to know him, we found out that he does not believe in God.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to read Alma 32, about faith.  When we got back, he hadn't read, so we just read with him.  The Spirit was strong the whole time.  At the end we asked him how he felt and he said that it sounded like it was talking to him haha.  We asked him to pray, which is not something that he does that often, and he reluctantly said yes.  He said a short, but fervent pray to his Father in heaven.  We asked him how he felt.  He said that he didn't know haha, it felt weird, but really good and he didn't know what it was.  We testified that it was all true, and as we left, he was reading the Book of Mormon.  Haha being a missionary is fun!

I testified that through the atonement, even his most burdensome sins could be washed away.

Letter to Dad....

Hey dad!  I sent a lot of cool miracles that happened this week to everyone else.  It was cool, at the new leader meeting, President came up to me and said that he actually had a different assignment in mind for me, but when he interviewed Elder Davis, my name popped into his head and he said that what I have is exactly what he needs.  It was cool.  So far training and district leading is awesome!  My whole district is sisters haha and half of them are on Palawan.  So President calls me the Relief Society President hahaha.  It's a little stressful leading and doing everything, but I love it haha.

Elder Zesiger with his new companion Elder Davis and President and Sister Ostler

I have to call all of the companionship's and get all their numbers and do baptismal interviews and report to the zone leaders and teach district meeting, its awesome!  Elder Davis has a super strong testimony of the atonement because of some past experiences in his life that he shared with me and it is an amazing strength that he has.

Dad this week has just been full of awesome stuff and it was awesome!  I love you guys.

Letter to Mom...

haha mom that sounds awesome!  I'm super glad to hear everyone is doing great, this week was super long but full of miracles and a lot of new stuff haha.  I've got a lot of cool stories as a result, the one I will tell you is about M.

She is the first person we baptized in the area awhile ago.  On Friday we went to teach her, at this point I was already with Elder Davis.  She seemed kind of out of it so we asked her what was wrong, she started crying and said that she sinned and didn't know what to do.  We taught and testified of the atonement of Jesus Christ and that no matter what her sin was, she could be healed.  There were a lot of tears and the Spirit was super strong.  When we left, she had hope and the faith to repent.  That night I prayed for her and I had the distinct impression that we needed to visit her the next day.  I didn't know why and I didn't want to cuz it was about 30 mins out of the way, but I told Elder Davis that we needed to go and the next day we went to her house.  She was surprised to see us, so we told her that we had prayed for her and felt that we needed to come.  She started crying cuz she was so happy haha.  She said that she still felt so bad and she had decided that she was not going to partake of the sacrament.  I asked her what her sin was and she told me that she was supposed to baby sit these kids and she left them to go hang out with friends and she felt super bad about it.  Just so you know for the context of the story, she is pretty close to being perfectly sinless haha.  I told her that Heavenly Father had forgiven her and that she needed to forgive herself.  We left and the next day at church, she came up and thanked us and said that she felt so good to partake of the sacrament.  It just goes to show how important it is to follow the spirit, how important the sacrament is, and how much God loves his children.  

I love you mom!

Letter to Caden...

OK here's a story, after I picked up my anak (companion?), on the taxi ride back home, I wanted to give him a good first impression, so we started a lesson with the taxi driver.  At the beginning, he just was preaching to us and didn't really want to listen, then I shared the first vision and we shared and testified about the atonement, it was crazy Caden, the guys attitude completely changed, it was cool to see the Spirit change him.  He started confessing his sins to me in the taxi, he used to do heroin, he cheated on his wife and had another family, and he even killed someone.  I testified that through the atonement, even his most burdensome sins could be washed away.  He said that he was feeling something that he had never felt before and that he had never confessed those sins to anyone but me.  I testified to him that it was the Holy Ghost confirming to him that our message was true.  He said that he wanted to be baptized, so we gave him a Book of Mormon and we will refer him to the missionaries in our area.  After we got out of the taxi, elder davis asked what he said, he was shocked when i told him what happened haha.  It was cool, I love you Caden!  Have a great week!

Elder Zesiger

Letter to Shelby....

I have a story for you.  Last Monday, as we were riding the jeep home, this girl started having an asthma attack.  It looked like she was going to die and her boyfriend didn't know what to do, so me and Elder Magno got her off the jeepne and started to work.  Elder Magno used to be a rescuer so he kinda knew what he was doing, but it looked like she was going to die.  I had the prompting to give her a blessing, but I said in my head "no blessings work according to faith and she doesn't even know who we are, so it wont work."  I felt it again "you need to give her a blessing"  I said "no there are a ton of people around, they'll just laugh at us"  I heard it again, "you need to heal her."  This time I said ok and I told Elder Magno.  He said ok andIi told the boyfriend. "we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we hold the authority to heal her, can we give her a blessing?" he said ok.  So we blessed her as she started to like go into convulsions.  While we were blessing her, I could hear people laughing all around us, but we just continued.  After we closed the blessing, she was completely fine, like nothing had happened, and a member nurse arrived, we told her about missionaries and ran home before 9:30 :)

Someone tried to rob me on Wednesday haha.

Letter to Mom...

(A member in his ward sent a video of him and I asked if it was against the rules or "bawal")

I don't think that they are bawal haha that's funny you know that word, communicating with family is bawal, but I don't receive any communication from you , so I think its fine, the missionary who said that it was bawal is brand new haha.  Ya I have iritis again, it was worse than ever and my pressure was 54 so the doctor was glad that I came in cuz he said that it was high enough to damage my vision.  I'm ok, I'm just bummed that I am bawal on Palawan still.  President texted last night and said that I am training and the district leader for Santa Mesa as well as an island on Palawan called Coron are under me too.  So that's cool.  I've wanted it for a long time haha but its kinda scary now haha but I'm excited, I pick up my anak (companion?) on Wednesday.  Please develop the picture of us with President and send it along with others that you think I need.  

Yesterday night I couldn't sleep, I was just thinking until 3:30am.  I realized how fast the time is going, I've already been in Santa Mesa for 3 months and when I finish the training of my anak, I'll be like 11-12 months!  It's crazy.  I am going to miss Elder Magno. I don't know where he's going yet.

There is an Elder in my bahay named Elder Carel, he is the only member in his family and no one emails him, it would be cool if you befriended him.  He's in his 6th week in the mission right now.  I'm almost 9 months now hahah I'm getting kinda old.  

My week was good, I'm going to St Lukes again after this, I bought a fake Patek Philippe, I couldn't help myself it was only 20$ and its freakin sick I sent it in the video.  I love you guys.  Tell Shelby that we went bowling as a district and I killed everyone, I scored a 129 so she's in trouble.

I love you guys more than anything:)  thanks for always being the best parents ever.

Oh ya a drunk guy tried to rob me one night, it was scary haha, but then an old lady just jumped out of no where and started whacking him with a stick and I got away hahaha it was sick!  I love you mom, don't worry:)

Elder Zesiger

Letter to Dad....

Hey dad... I found out about the transfers last night.  President texted and said that I'm training and I'm a district leader for Santa Mesa and I have about 1/3 of Palawan under me too.  haha I was kinda shocked, I've wanted this forever but when I actually got the text it was kinda scary haha.  I was thinking in my bed until 3:30 am last night so I'm pretty tired right now haha.  You did the exact same thing at 8 months too right haha.  If so that's cool. It's crazy how fast the time is going now.  There are only three elders coming into the mission this transfer, two Americans and a Filipino so he's probably mine, its kinda cool, I'm gonna have an anak, but its kinda scary cuz I don't know how to train or district lead haha, but I'm excited.

We taught a lot of new people this week.  One that was cool was this nanay (mother).  We found a new part of our area that we didn't even know we had.  It is a huge squatter area along the river with 10,000s of people all in little wooden houses.  The nanay was taught by missionaries before and then her husband died and she moved, she has a lot of questions and our lesson with her was really spiritual especially in telling her how she could see him again, because of all the Christ did for us.  It was cool.

Part of our district, we didn't know they were taking a picture.

Someone tried to rob me on Wednesday haha.  I was on exchanges with Elder Gibson in his area so we were just two tall white guys.  All of the sudden this drunk guy just grabbed my arm and started grunting like a monkey haha.  I was like "oh frick!"  and I like yanked my arm back, then he grabbed my bag and was just pulling and screaming.  All of the sudden this old lady just jumped out from the darkness and started whacking him with a stick.  So we ran hahaha.  It was awesome.  Until that moment I never realized that I am just an 18 year old kid wandering around a drug infested city haha, and I'm still totally safe!  That's pretty cool.

I love you dad, I look up to you a lot, but I'm doing fine, tell mom not to worry.  I'm finishing the standard works, but the bible is long.  There are a lot of ways to sacrifice a bull and now I know every single one. haha.  Also, the transam has to be done so I can focus on developing myself into a success.

There is a guy in my ward that has kind of become one of my idols.  His name is Aries Siton.  When he was little, his family was really poor and he collected and sold plastic to survive, then he went on a mission and decided that he could change his life.  When he got back he worked really, really hard and got smart.  Now he owns his own architecture and engineering company.  His wife is a lawyer and they both play instruments.  He is now building an apartment complex across the street from his house for income and he just decided that he would build a hotel.  He is always super happy but he can be serious too.  He came up to us yesterday when Raizo got ordained a deacon.  He is the ym president and for the last two years every month he has been fasting that a young man could be baptized into the ward.  Raizo was the first one, it was awesome!

I love my mission, I love you guys:) thanks for being the best parents ever.

Elder Zesiger is having some trouble with his eye again so we are anxious to see what the doctor said.

Letter to Mom...

I'm going to the doctor after this, and I'll probably get more medicine, I'm just bummed cuz I was 2 months without a problem and I was cleared to go to Palawan and the transfer ends next week, so I'm probably still not going. 

I can't imagine why he would want to go to Palawan.  Not that he can go in the water anyway!

Raizo has been awesome, he drew a couple pictures of me and gave them to me, this other investigator also gave me a sick knife!  Raizo and John Ralph work with us everyday and carry our bags hahah its pretty funny.  We had a barbecue last night on the roof and we are going to get huge burgers later to celebrate 4th of July even tho I'm the only American, we are also going bowling haha.

This week was pretty good.  For my eye, its like when you stand up too fast and every thing goes black, but all the time and its like flashing.  I can also see my veins, like not in the mirror, but in my vision.  It looks like black lightning flashing across my vision, its kinda cool, but scary.

I will email dad about an awesome experience that i had with the priesthood, I love you mom.

Letter to Dad...

I had an awesome experience this week with the Priesthood.  When we went to teach the Totanez family, Sister Totanez was really sick.  She couldn't see and she was super dizzy.  I remembered the John Tanner movie, have you seen it?  I asked her what they asked him in the movie.  Do you believe that Christ healed the blind?  Do you believe that His authority and power has been restored and exists in the church today?  Do you have faith sufficient to be healed?  She said yes to all and asked me for a blessing.  I blessed her that she would be okay, but I don't really remember what I said.  After the blessing, the Spirit was strong, but nothing really happened.  We asked her to say the opening prayer for the lesson and she prayed that the blessing would work and told Heavenly Father that she believed.  I was praying sooooo hard in my heart that the blessing would work, for her faith and mine, I had never healed anyone before.  I was praying and praying while Elder Magno taught his part.  I heard these words in my head.  "Put your trust in Me.  I will fulfill my promises."  I was calm.  All of the sudden Sister Totanez stood up to go get her Book of Mormon and the whole room went quiet.  She smiled and started laughing with excitement and said that she felt amazing, after that she read verses like it was no problem, tears came to my eyes.  It was an amazing faith building experience. 

This week was fast, I love you dad.